Fishmosy's Chameleon tank

[fishmosy]

I really like the pure black and the brown tiger stripes. Less fussed on the reds and oranges which seem to be of a stress colouration anyway.

[Grubs]

Well I'm very jealous.  Mine have continued to go pale despite loads of IA leaves, mulbury leaves, different food... although they are breeding well.  Nearly time to pull the tank down and rescape - I think with lots of wood and black soil.  (the yellow circles are ostracods I was pointing out on another forum).

 

I think the pink ones should be the deep burgundy red ones and the grey ones are the mottled tiger striped ones!

 

Edited January 15, 2015 by Grubs

[fishmosy]

Well I'm very jealous.  Mine have continued to go pale despite loads of IA leaves, mulbury leaves, different food... although they are breeding well.  Nearly time to pull the tank down and rescape - I think with lots of wood and black soil.  (the yellow circles are ostracods I was pointing out on another forum).

 

I think the pink ones should be the deep burgundy red ones and the grey ones are the mottled tiger striped ones!

 

 

 

Wow that is disappointing. I now have a new theory that higher pH is more conducive to better colour. I also have a theory that they need a lot of algae/biofilm in their diet to have better colour.  To be honest, I don't know why mine have held their colour so far. However I'm still sweating waiting for my juveniles to colour up to the degree of the adults.

[fishmosy]

I'll post my pictures in groups from different months so you can see how the juveniles are growing and colouring up.

 

So here is November 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[fishmosy]

Berried females (Late November 2014)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[fishmosy]

 

 

freaky red eyes

 

 

Juvenile, sorry poor picture but you can see it starting to colour up.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 15, 2015 by fishmosy

[fishmosy]

 

 

 

 

[GotCrabs]

P1020773-P50.jpg

P1020886-P50.jpg

 

 

These two are crackers, nice photos too.

[fishmosy]

Pictures from December 2014

 

tank shot from 7/12/14

 

 

 

 

Still berried (or newly berried - can't remember now)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tank shot from 22/12/14 - Notice how much extra algae is on the branch than in previous tank shots. Tank is maturing nicely.

 

[fishmosy]

Another female berried (late December, 2014)  (or still berried from November?)

 

 

 

 

Juveniles still colouring up - sssssllllllllloooooooowwwwwwllllllllyyyyyyyyy

 

 

 

 

[fishmosy]

Success - January 12, 2015    New shrimplets sighted, excuse the algae on the glass.

 

 

 

 

Juveniles really starting to show some good pattern and colour now. Well good relative to what they have been, poor compared to the adults. they still have a bit of growing to do though.

 

 

Edited January 15, 2015 by fishmosy

[fishmosy]

These two are crackers, nice photos too.

 

thanks mate. hopefully the juvies eventually colour up to be more like this.

[Disciple]

Nice man really like these shrimp. Although it takes a awhile before you spot them easily once you get used to it, it's awesome.

I also noticed my shrimplets are less colourful then the parents. Hoping they will colour up soon.

[northboy]

Howdy Ben

 

Doing well mate, you can find 5 colour variations in the one spot in the wild and most of the berried females seam to be red. Some times and places they will all be the same colour and when they are the low percentage of a catch, they are all clear, about a helpful as ???  

 

Feed a small piece of fish or prawn, that will help them grow, look out that you don't give to much and send you tank off. Leave the algae in the glass to they love it. 

 

I still have a theory on the line breeding of colour, if it is doable they will have done it in Asia?? that don't mean its not possible, its just that they don't miss a trick over there.

 

They are a big shrimplets when looking at native egg and shrimplet sizes, so one of the easiest to breed, Typus are one of the smallest and spend time suspended in mid water  

 

Keep up the good work mate and I don't think any one has done a paper on there life cycle so there an op for you and the crab paper might be a goer.

 

Bob

[fishmosy]

Thanks Bob.

I'll try feeding the prawn or something similar. Hopefully the shrimp will be able to get to it before the snails.

Never considered a paper on their lifecycle. Might look into what would need to be done.

[ineke]

Great thread Ben, love the pictures.

[northboy]

Do it Ben and if the one helping me with the crab paper bugs I can lean on you????

 

It would be a paper that would be popular out side the boffin/ science community, shrimp keeper would live it and I can give you some info for it to

 

Bob

[FishBeast]

Well I'm very jealous.  Mine have continued to go pale despite loads of IA leaves, mulbury leaves, different food... although they are breeding well.  Nearly time to pull the tank down and rescape - I think with lots of wood and black soil.  (the yellow circles are ostracods I was pointing out on another forum).

 

I think the pink ones should be the deep burgundy red ones and the grey ones are the mottled tiger striped ones!

 

 

 

 

 

I have found the same thing. I am certain that if the temperature of the water is too high then they will most likely loose their colour. My tanks reach 31 during the day and I can see that their numbers decline and they do not breed as readily,

 

Also I have another separate tank with my parent stock that always have better colour than the breeding stock in my rack. They have much stronger light and the algae is a vibrant green in there as opposed to the brown dust algae in the rack. I suspect that light intensity and colour temperature have a role to play in it too.

 

I am currently feeding  Hikari shrimp cuisine, dog biscuits and Aquagreens fish food.

 

By memory my perameters are;

 

Temp 28-31 in summer

PH: 8

GH: 200

[northboy]

In the larger rivers they tend to be a fresh water tidal species around Cairns, that is tidal but always fresh, there is also a lot of Aquatic plant where they are, so it is a fairly stable environment that only changes slow, except at flood time when the temp will drop by as much as 8c and PH will increase by a couple of marks as in 6.8 to 7.2 roughly. All measurements will be different depending on conditions local.

 

In the small short run creek on the cost where there are mountains direct to the sea it is way different, the Temps will swing big time when it rains, from the 30s down to low 20s in minutes and PH will go from 6 or lower to 7.2 and above, hardness will only change a little as there is no time to pick up any minerals. Also in the costal creeks they live in leaf litter and tend to be black pattern, where as in the large rivers there is a tend to be red, there is all colours ever where but there is also a large percentage of red in big rivers and black in small creeks.

 

I guess there is a article for the forum on the different colours in different spots or the different dominance of colours in places

 

Bob

[fishmosy]

In the larger rivers they tend to be a fresh water tidal species around Cairns, that is tidal but always fresh, there is also a lot of Aquatic plant where they are, so it is a fairly stable environment that only changes slow, except at flood time when the temp will drop by as much as 8c and PH will increase by a couple of marks as in 6.8 to 7.2 roughly. All measurements will be different depending on conditions local.

 

In the small short run creek on the cost where there are mountains direct to the sea it is way different, the Temps will swing big time when it rains, from the 30s down to low 20s in minutes and PH will go from 6 or lower to 7.2 and above, hardness will only change a little as there is no time to pick up any minerals. Also in the costal creeks they live in leaf litter and tend to be black pattern, where as in the large rivers there is a tend to be red, there is all colours ever where but there is also a large percentage of red in big rivers and black in small creeks.

 

I guess there is a article for the forum on the different colours in different spots or the different dominance of colours in places

 

Bob

Guessing you are talking about the typus here Bob?

[northboy]

Sorry Mate my bad, its about Chameleon not Typus.

 

Typus only like a narrow bio type and tend to be a foot hill or low mountain species, there is exceptions to every rule though. Roughly Typus are in small area of some creeks, Chameleon's are in a larger area on most creeks and rivers and some places they are together, its dam hard to quantify.

 

Where we went on the Johnston is a prime Chameleon area, the Vall beds there are usually full of them, up stream about 10k there are Typus.

 

Bob

[fishmosy]

I thought Chameleon was Northern Territory only, with its scientific name Caridina sp. NT 4 (undescribed species).

Maybe you mean chameleon as in Caridina serratirostris? I've started calling the serratirostris 'ninja shrimp' as they widespread throughout the Pacific, and that seems a common name for them overseas.

[northboy]

That's one way of splitting them up, to look at they are the same, would be interesting to see if they can still breed with one another??? or they have changed that much.

Do you know what sort of areas they come from OS, weed beds, leaf litter.   Small creeks or big rivers??  I have never looked at over seas shrimp??

 

Bob

 

I use to call the locals Ninjas but people were getting confused, it may be what need to be done Ninjas and Chameleons

Edited January 18, 2015 by northboy

[fishmosy]

They might interbreed. According to what I've read, Tim Page did a genetic analysis and found the chameleon (aka Caridina sp. NT4) was a different species to all known Australian Caridina, including ninjas (aka Caridina serratirostris).

Do the shrimp you call chameleons (from Cairns) have direct developing larvae? The description of serratirostris in Riek, 1953 says they have small (0.2 -0.3mm), but numerous eggs.

[northboy]

Yep they come off ready to rock and roll, but they are big compared to most others. They don't free swim, they go onto surfaces straight away and start feeding, one of the easier to breed.

 

Bob